A Little Light Screaming on kindle

Johnny Mains' collection A Little Light Screaming is now available on kindle for a mere £1.99!!!!


amazon.co.uk   £1.99
amazon.com     $3.05

A Little Light Screaming by Johnny Mains

The latest trade paperback from Parallel Universe Publications is now available: A Little Light Screaming by Johnny Mains.

Johnny Mains is the award winning editor of Back From the Dead. He is also the editor of Best British Horror and, along with Robin Ince, of Dead Funny, both from Salt Publishing. This is his third collection of short stories, which includes Resuscitation Andy, The Case of the Revenant, Blossom, The Girl on the Suicide Bridge, The Foul Mass at Tongue House, Paintings, A Forest of Lonely Deaths, Sticking Your Head Out is Dangerous, The Curse of the Monster, and The Gamekeeper.

Amazon.co.uk £8.00
Amazon.com   $10.00

A second 5-star review for Kitchen Sink Gothic

Kitchen Sink Gothic got a second 5-star review on Amazon.com.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

it is that good., October 17, 2015

By 

Michael Hanson

This review is from: Kitchen Sink Gothic (Paperback)

I just read the anthology "Kitchen Sink Gothic" and yes, I was blown away. As a title interpretation, I can respectfully call this Working Class Gothic, as it is a strange and Gothic journey into the lives of the ordinary folk of our world, and not the social elite that populate much of literature's history. And it is here that Kitchen Sink Gothic's charms lie. As a grab-bag of different tales, some surprise with their deviousness, and others shock with their arrogance, but all of them, each and every story in this clever and tasty collection, is sure to entertain. Heck, I think I'll pick it up and read it a second time now. Yes, it is that good.

The Pan Book of Horror Stories Scrapbook - Johnny MainsA

Artwork: Les Edwards

Not the finished version, but this gives a good idea of what Johnny Mains' The Pan Book of Horror Stories Scrapbook will look like. The Cover is the work of talented artist Les Edwards.

England 'B': 90 Minutes of Hell by Richard Staines

Parallel Universe Publications is proud to announce that it has yet another collection scheduled for publication this year: England 'B': 90 Minutes of Hell by the infamous Richard Staines.

The collection includes six interrelated stories:
No Such Thing as a Friendly
A Game of Two Halves
The Ref's Decision is Final
Get Your Fritz Out for the Lads
Football's Dark Arts
They Think it's all Over

 What they are saying about Richard Staines:

 “Please get in all the Richard Staines horror books and chuck out all that other rubbish you have on the shelves.” The T.L.S. (Tooting Library Service), message left on their public noticeboard, 1975.

“Richard Staines is one of the most valued contributors to our magazine and we are glad to have him, despite the avalanche of protests. No animals were actually harmed in the photo-spread referred to.” Readers Wives editorial, 1977.

“Unfortunately, the jury have not been able to reach a verdict due to food poisoning, hit and run incidents, and the disappearance of close family members, but the great British public outside this courtroom will doubtless make up its own mind about your filthy, depraved, sickening and contemptible books. Case dismissed. You may leave the dock.” Lord Justice Haigh (deceased), summing up in the case of Regina vs Richard Staines, 1978.

“Many horror authors insult the intelligence of the people. Staines not only does this but is a bloody good read, too. He is the future of horror in the 1980s.” Anonymous letter to Colour Climax, 1979.

“We do not feel under any obligation to have to respond on a point by point basis to your repeated claims that the Nobel Prize committee for Literature have deliberately overlooked your horror fiction and cannot undertake to reply to any further letters on this matter.” Official letter from Lars Svenson (deceased), Nobel Prize Award Committee, Secretary, 1979.

“That snob and has-been Dennis Wheatley has never lived in a council flat on a Peckham estate with only cheap cans of lager, a black and white telly, and Yes and Genesis records to keep his muse lubricated. Dennis Wheatley's simply not as socially relevant in today's world as a “man-of-the-people” like Richard Staines. The truth is that Wheatley recognises all this and was just being a dick when he refused to write the introduction to Staines' book Psycho Flasher.” Anonymous letter to The International British Black Magic and Horror Club Newsletter # 8, 1975.

Johnny Mains Story Short-listed for British Fantasy Award

Fantasycon is being held next weekend (24th and 25th October) and one of the most exciting things for me is to see how one of the stories in Johnny Mains' upcoming collection, A Little Light Screaming will do as The Girl on the Suicide Bridge is one of the four short-listed nominees for Best Short Story for the British fantasy Awards.



This is a brilliant achievement and I'll be having my fingers crossed till the winners are announced.

Mind you, whether this story wins or not it is still a nominee and that in itself is important.

The full list is:

A Change of Heart, Gaie Sebold (Wicked Women)
The Girl on the Suicide Bridge, J.A. Mains (Beside the Seaside)
Ptichka, Laura Mauro (Horror Uncut: Tales of Social Insecurity and Economic Unease)
A Woman’s Place, Emma Newman (Two Hundred and Twenty-One Baker Streets)

BEST OF LUCK, JOHNNY!

A Little Light Screaming by Johnny Mains

Cover art: David Whitlam

It's all go at Parallel Universe Publications. Our next book, which will be published in November, will be a brand new collection of tales by Johnny Mains: A Little Light Screaming. 
These include many of his most recent writings, including a pastiche of Sherlock Holmes and his highly acclaimed The Girl on the Suicide Bridge.
The stories are:

Resuscitation Andy
The Case of the Revenant
Blossom
The Girl on the Suicide Bridge
The Foul Mass at Tongue House
Paintings (with Simon Bestwick)
A Forest of Lonely Deaths
Sticking Your Head Out Is Dangerous
The Curse of the Monster (with Bryn Fortey)
The Gamekeeper

The book is 204 pages long and has a front cover by David Whitlam.

And Nobody Lived Happily Ever After by Kate Farrell

Cover Art: Vincent Chong

Busily proofreading the text for the forthcoming collection of short stories by Kate Farrell, And Nobody Lived Happily Ever After, which will be published by Parallel Universe Publications in December.
The cover is by the massively talented Vincent Chong.
The book will be published as a trade paperback and an ebook and will include seventeen highly disturbing stories. 

A great 5-star review for Black Ceremonies on Amazon

Review:

"You may recognise the name Charles Black and wonder where you've seen it before? If you're a fan of horror, and in particular the horror anthology, then you'll quickly realise that Charles Black is the editor of that wonderful and long running Black Book of Horror series, now in its 11th edition.

Never mind that Mr Black manages to attract some of the best writing talent available in the horror genre for his acclaimed anthologies ( number 11 seems to have reached new heights in its ghoulish excellence! ), but this highly talented editor is also a clever master of writing a great horror story as well!

Black Ceremonies is a wonderful collection of his own, self-penned tales...13 in all, with stories that will haunt and thoroughly unsettle you. From The Obsession of Percival Cairstairs to The Stromboli Collection, each tale has been crafted by a master in the field of terror.

So, to sum up, not only has Mr Charles Black created the greatest horror anthology since those magnificent Pan Books of Horror with his Black Books of Horror, but it transpires that he also a very talented author as well?

Buy this collection now. ....but don't plan on getting much sleep if you read the tales at bedtime"

Fishhead: The Darker Tales of Irvin S. Cobb

I am currently working on getting Fishhead: The Darker Tales of Irvin S. Cobb ready for publication by Parallel Universe. Irvin S. Cobb was a famous humorist, journalist, editor and occasional actor, whose stories were amongst the most popular in American letters during the first half of the twentieth century. In 1935 he hosted the Oscars and appeared in a number of early movies.
Only occasionally did his fiction delve into darker areas. One of his most famous, Fishhead, went on to inspire H. P. Lovecraft’s Shadow Over Innsmouth, while The Unbroken Chain gave Lovecraft the idea behind The Rats in the Walls. H. P. Lovecraft wrote of Fishhead in his essay Supernatural Horror in Literature: “banefully effective in its portrayal of unnatural affinities between a hybrid idiot and the strange fish of an isolated lake.”
Here for the first time are collected fourteen of Irvin S. Cobb’s darkest tales:
The Escape of Mr. Trimm
The Gallowsmith
Mr. Lobel's Apopexy
Fishhead
The Unbroken Chain
The Second Coming of the First Husband
The Masterpiece
January Thaw
Cabbages and Kings
We Can't All Be Thoroughbreds
Queer Creek
Ace, Deuce, Ten Spot, Joker
Balm of Gilead
Faith, Hope, and Charity

Irvin S. Cobb on the cover of All-Story Weekly

Irvin S. Cobb presenting the Oscars 1935

Classic Weird 2

Updated and probably final cover for Classic Weird 2, which will include:


An Account of Some Strange Disturbances in Aungier Street        

by J. Sheridan Le Fanu

The Judgement Books  

by E. F. Benson

Oke of Okehurst          

by Vernon Lee

When I Was Dead    

by Vincent O’Sullivan

The Eyes  

by Edith Wharton

A Story Told by the Sea       

by W. C. Morrow

The Unbroken Chain    

by Irvin S. Cobb

From the Dead  

by Edith Nesbit

Witch In-Grain          

by Robert Murray Gilchrist

The Downs   

 by Amyas Northcote

The Uninhabited House     

 by J. H. Riddell

5-star review of Moloch's Children

"An excellent book. Might be a bit scary for some but a very good tale with a good ending."

I couldn't ask for a better review than that.

trade paperback: 

amazon.co.uk  £7.99
amazon.com   $9.99

ebook:

amazon.co.uk  £2.99
amazon.com  $4.68

The Eleventh Black Book of Horror

Cover: Paul Mudie

The Eleventh Black Book of Horror is now available on Amazon.

trade paperback £7.00  Amazon.co.uk

Thana Niveau - Two Five Seven
Edward Pearce - East Wickenden
Tom Johnstone - Slaughtered Lamb
John Llewellyn Probert - Forgive Us Not Our Trespasses
Stephen Bacon - Lord Of The Sand
Kate Farrell - Alma Mater
Stuart Young - Keeping The Romance Alive
Anna Taborska - Teatime
David A. Riley - Lem
Tony Earnshaw - Flies
David Williamson - And The Dead Shall Speak
Marion Pitman - Every Picture Tells A Story
Sam Dawson - The Weathervane
John Forth - Molli & Julli